6 year old Quilter

sewing blocks together

Laurel  is making her first quilt.  I don’t know who is more excited, my little granddaughter or her Nana.

We started this project mid-summer as part of our homeschool curriculum.  While she sewed, 5 year old Robert had shop class with  Granddad.  But one thing and another seemed to impede our progress and by the end of September, she had only embroidered 9 blocks, more than enough for this quilt.  But piecing had not yet begun.

Children do not have great attention spans. I learned long ago when teaching my Rebecca to sew that they need completion in a relatively short period of time.  By Oct. 1, Laurel’s quilt was already in overtime as we began piecing.  She absolutely loved selecting the fabric strips and sewing up those blocks.   I knew we had to keep our momentum and wrap this up soon.

But it’s football season.  On Saturdays, our family gathers here to watch the  day’s games so very little sewing gets done.  The Florida had a bye this week—a blessed relief for the Gator Nation considering the way the season is going—so we could enjoy college football without biting our nails and groaning and wailing.  This also gave me a chance to sew today with Laurel, whose limited but growing knowledge of college football prevented her from understanding that the Gators did not play today.  Still, she arrived decked out with her Gator cap and ever-faithful game day companion, Gator Barbie. 

Laurel loves the "hiking" fabric in this block, as well as the ScoobyDoo print.

Laurel gave a lot of attention to arranging the blocks, deciding which of her embroidered blocks would be set aside for another project and which arrangement of pieced blocks was most pleasing.  I explained that marking each block with row and position, 1A, 1B, 1C, etc. would be a good idea in case the blocks were accidentally pushed off the table.  In fact, we were sewing in the dining room with the door to the breakfast porch open to the breezy day.  Several blocks were blown off the table and Laurel thought I was soooo smart to have preserved her careful arrangement.

The fabric with American flags is one of her favorites.

This seems to be a near perfect beginner quilt design.  One of my absolute rules for teaching children to sew is that the project must be a guaranteed success.  The redwork embroidery was a snap, with no color change and really no opportunity for failure.  You’ve gotta love machine embroidery for that.

But sashing seemed too challenging for a first quilt. So I defaulted to one of my favorite scrap quilt patterns which is simply random sized strips stitched to a heavily starched foundation square.  We digressed from the traditional red-and-white-only prints but did insure that each print had at least some red.  I like this variety and Laurel loved using Sponge Bob, ScoobyDoo and all the other novelty prints.  The pieced blocks are alternated with the redwork embroidered blocks.

The needle and thread fabric at the top of the block is her one of her favorites.

The beauty of such a design for a beginner is that it is not dependent on accurate seam allowances or straight seams.  As long as that foundation square is covered with fabric, it can be trimmed to a given size.  Much as Laurel loved embroidering the redwork squares, she surprised me by her genuine delight and preference for actual sewing when we got to the block construction. Meanwhile, Laurel’s seams became straighter with each strip and then with each block.

Both the embroidery and the muslin foundation squares measured 10″.  This gave a wide margin for error, as I had planned the squared up blocks to be cut from 7-9″, depending on the integrity of the block.  I do not believe beginning sewist should be made  to rip out.  So if too much rippling or puckering or whatever occurred, it likely could be cut away with those wide sizing parameters.  As it turned out, the blocks were squared up to 9″.

This size should work out nicely.  With a 1/2″ seam allowance and a simple 4″ border, the quilt top will accommodate a 45″ fabric width for backing. Plus, a first quilt needn’t be large.  Our plan is to turn the quilt, ala Eleanor Burns, rather than bind it, and  then tie it rather than quilt it.

There is still a long way to go, but her enthusiasm has not diminished. I will keep you posted on her progress.  This is so much fun!